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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27752683">Restless Waters</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWalkingGrimes/pseuds/TheWalkingGrimes'>TheWalkingGrimes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales of District Four [24]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hunger Games Series - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Discussed sex trafficking, Gen, Hunger Games-Typical Death/Violence, Implied/Referenced Murder, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, The Propo, outsider pov</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:55:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,400</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27752683</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWalkingGrimes/pseuds/TheWalkingGrimes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Finnick's propo airs in District Four.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales of District Four [24]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2018845</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>85</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Restless Waters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So I normally follow the book dialogue, but I fudged a bit on the transition between Katniss and Finnick in the propo because I wanted it to be less abrupt, and so I both borrowed a tiny bit of the movie dialogue and added a little bit of my own. It's very minor, and hopefully not too distracting.</p><p>Also, I believe in the book the propo only aired in the Capitol, but for the purpose of this story we're going to assume that they decided to air it in 4 as well, in the hopes that it would get people angry.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Lana takes a sip of the drink that was presented to her, then spits it back into the cup immediately.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is shit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Terrence, her watch partner, laughs. Asshole.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“More varnish than what they use to polish the decks of those Capitol trawlers.” He agrees. “But it’ll keep your eyes peeled.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, that’s all that matters, isn’t it.” Lana says flatly, but takes another sip as Terrence claps her on the shoulder and heads above deck while she continues to watch the radar.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s late at night and their small patrol boat is cloaked from Capitol detection. They’re safe for now, but it’s difficult not to be on edge. Although many of the other Districts have managed to turn the tide of the rebellion in their favor, the odds are still not in their favor for District Four.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There are still those in District Four that are afraid of the war. People with children to protect, who are watching them to go hungry for the first time in their lives. Unlike some of the more desperate districts, District Four has a reasonably sized well-off population. People who don’t have to send their children to take tesserae multiple times over in order not to starve - or to essentially sell their children to training as potential volunteers to relieve their debts or at the very least give them one less mouth to feed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then there </span>
  <em>
    <span>are </span>
  </em>
  <span>the poor. The ones who have been told over and over again that they are lucky to live here. That they are </span>
  <em>
    <span>valued</span>
  </em>
  <span> by the Capitol for what they could do. The love the Capitol has for their seafood, the pearls collected by scabby-kneed sea urchins on the beach, the beautiful sea-salt scrubs and candles lovingly crafted by vendors. This is the place that Capitolites flock to after the Games every year so they could frolic in the waves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, most years.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The explosion at the arena and the ensuing chaos and rebellions that followed meant that there was no tourism season. Peacekeepers came down and locked them into their homes, forced people to fish with machine guns to their backs. Everything is about survival and people are starving. In most of the other districts, similar situations have happened and turned them into powder kegs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But District Four is slightly different. There isn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>loyalty </span>
  </em>
  <span>for the Capitol, exactly - they aren’t as tightly bound as Districts One and Two, who had been the first to turn against the other districts in the first war. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>No, District Four has earned their place in the Capitol’s heart in the Games, providing them with entertainment and the third most Victors of any district. Years where they received Parcel Day were a blessing, and while it was often behind gritted teeth, people thanked the Capitol. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They learned that if you played the Capitol’s games and gave them what they wanted, then you would be rewarded and you could survive - even thrive. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Smile, give them what they want, and they’ll either leave you alone or rewarded. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Yes, they lost children to the games every year, but at least more of them came back than most of the other districts. It could be worse, many people said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lana, who lost her daughter to the 62nd Hunger Games, can not say she agreed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey,” She looks up to see Shale entering the cabin, his eyes tight with uncertainty. “Transmission from Eight. Sort of garbled, but they told us Thirteen says there might be restless waters tonight.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Restless waters?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shale shrugs. “Don’t think they meant the ocean.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What could that mean? Is Thirteen finally sending the reinforcements that have been promised them? They’ve been told it isn’t possible - they’re too cut off and heavily guarded by Peacekeeper forces. Ever since Eleven and Ten has been overwhelmed by rebel forces, the Capitol has been keen on protecting their last major food source.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s something Lana has feared - that Thirteen would do something to poison the water. If they do, it would cripple the Capitol forces badly, but would sentence the citizens of Four to starvation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shale folds his arms across his chest and Lana takes a moment to regard him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ending of the Quarter Quell had been chaos. Lana and a few of the other rebel contacts in District Four had been given some indication that they should expect something, but not what or when. The only clear instructions that they’d been given had been to protect the Victors when whatever was going to happen would happen. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>At the time it had seemed counter-intuitive (these were all trained killers, shouldn’t it be their job to protect </span>
  <em>
    <span>them?) </span>
  </em>
  <span>but when Lana arrived at Victor’s Isle she had understood. It was in flames, barely fifteen minutes after Katniss Everdeen shot that fated electric arrow at the arena’s forcefield, ending the Games early and in confusion. There had already been a Hovercraft taking off, while Peacekeepers were shooting the rest of them on sight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were able to get Shale out, as well as Meri's young children. No one else.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shale Harvorth, Victor of the 31st Hunger Games, is the last Victor of District Four. Well, the last Victor </span>
  <em>
    <span>in </span>
  </em>
  <span>District Four at least. They found Eldoris’s and Orion's bodies riddled with bullets, along with Orion's husband and Eldoris’s teenage son. Drake’s body was fished out of the ocean a day later. Mags had of course died on the first day of the Quarter Quell. Annie and Meri were both unaccounted for - they’re likely either taken to the Capitol or dead and if they’re in the Capitol it’s unknown if it’s for their protection or imprisonment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finnick, who was alive in the arena when it blew, is presumed to be in District Thirteen with Katniss Everdeen, but there are doubts about whether or not that’s true - specifically because Katniss has been everywhere recently, her face raging about the atrocities of the Capitol while the fires of battle burn behind her. </span>
  <span>Meanwhile Finnick is nowhere to be seen. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was presumed that he was dead, or in the Capitol, until his voice started to narrate some of the propos Thirteen was putting out. Then speculation began that he’s either too injured to make a physical appearance, or he is being held against his will by Thirteen and forced to cooperate - or he’s dead and they are just using voice imitation technology to trick the Districts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lana had asked Shale what he thought, and Shale just shrugged. “Who the fuck knows. Could never get a read on that kid anyway. Little too cozy with the Capitol for my taste. I’m sure if someone fished him out of that arena he’s cooperating with them, no matter if it’s the Capitol or Thirteen. Doubt he cares.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shale, who they had to drag away from the bloody body of his wife on Victor’s Isle, definitely cares. Everyone in District Four’s small rebellious force is angry, vindictive, and willing to give their lives for the cause. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They have nothing left to lose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s the problem, Lana thinks as she drums her fingers against the cup with the disgusting tea. Most of the people in District Four haven’t been pushed to that point. They still have something to lose. They’ve been treading water for far too long, thinking they’re okay because they aren’t drowning like the other districts. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hope is a dangerous thing and Four has been fed enough of it over the years - train your children, even if they’re not volunteers, feed them well enough, take the Capitol’s money and they’ll have a chance. Send them off to the Games and they could even come back, stronger and richer and celebrated by the District for the prosperity they bring.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It is, Lana knows, all an illusion. Even for a District with their odds the amount of children they sacrifice to the Capitol could never equal what the Capitol gives back. They ensure that by taking </span>
  <em>
    <span>two </span>
  </em>
  <span>every year and only giving one the possibility of living. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Until the Girl on Fire. Until Katniss Everdeen had refused to play their games and shoved a handful of berries down her and her love’s mouth. District Twelve had not only defied the odds - they’d defied the </span>
  <em>
    <span>Capitol </span>
  </em>
  <span>and thrown a different sort of hope into the mix. But it was also a reminder - that it wasn’t fair that only one child got to come out of the arena alive. That it wasn’t fair that </span>
  <em>
    <span>any </span>
  </em>
  <span>child didn’t get to come home alive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What had affected Lana the most, and what had gotten her to final listen to Terrance’s yammerings about </span>
  <em>
    <span>“what would it be like if we cut off the Capitol’s supply to their food source?” </span>
  </em>
  <span>was how Katniss reacted to Rue’s death. She didn’t treat her like a fallen comrade, the way so many of her predecessors had when express remorse for their allies death.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She treated Rue like a child. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“She was too young,” </span>
  </em>
  <span>Katniss had said, and Lana knew she was right. She knew Rue was too young - the same way that Katniss was too young. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The same way Coraline was too young.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As if summoned by her thoughts, the small holo-screen that they keep in the corner of the cabin crackles to life with an incoming transition by District Thirteen. Katniss Everdeen looks as clean-faced as she does in every District Thirteen propo - a welcome change from the overdone makeup that the Capitol always put on (like they were trying to dress up a young girl into a fashion doll). </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lana isn’t naive enough to think that District Thirteen doesn’t know exactly what they’re doing with the contrast, but still she has to acknowledge it’s unconscious affect on her. Even though she knows very little about District Thirteen beyond the fact that they say they cannot help liberate District Four right now, she knows that their values are different than the Capitol’s. That means something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katniss begins talking about a bombing on Thirteen, which is not news to Lana. They’d watched the Capitol propos about the triumph and then received the very short message that Thirteen had survived. The girl from Twelve quickly switches to talking about Peeta Mellarke, who she says risked his life to give them that message and talks of her love for him - how she met him. It’s a nice, genuine moment of humanity and Lana thinks it feels more real than any overt display of affection that the two of them had showed when they were parading around for the Capitol.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shale is a little less impressed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, this is sweet and all but this can’t be the restless waters they were talking about.” He grumbles and Lana thinks he might be wrong. So far District Thirteen has been confused about why District Four’s rebellion has remained so small. They don’t understand why people who aren’t truly even loyal to the Capitol would be afraid of fighting. It would not surprise her for them to think their propos of the girl on Fire would rock the boat here more than they actually do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So yes, it’s entirely possible that this is exactly what the message District Eight had passed on, presumably from District Thirteen, would mean. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katniss has shifted to talking about President Snow and the Capitol. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“President Snow once admitted to me that the Capitol was fragile. The Capitol’s fragile because it depends on the districts for everything. Food, energy, even the Peacekeepers that police us. If we declare our freedom, the Capitol collapses. President Snow, thanks to you, I’m officially declaring mine today.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s a bit more than her story about how Peeta saved her as a child with a loaf of burned bread, but Lana and Shale shake their heads at each other. It’s a rallying cry, and maybe it will tip a few people who were already over the edge toward their cause but… no. Not enough.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No sooner has Lana thought that than Finnick Odair’s recognizable face fills the screen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh.” Lana sets her mug of disgusting tea down in surprise. This is a little more interesting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shale apparently thinks so too, because he straightens his back and leaned forward. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“This is Finnick Odair, winner of the 65th Hunger Games. I’m coming to you alive and well from District Thirteen…”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>So they are aware of the rumors, Lana supposes, that Finnick isn’t really on their side and are probably hoping to rectify them. He certainly is </span>
  <em>
    <span>alive </span>
  </em>
  <span>but doesn’t appear exactly </span>
  <em>
    <span>well</span>
  </em>
  <span> - he looks even more tired and wan than Katniss had. If seeing Katniss without any of the glitz and capitol makeup was refreshing, seeing Finnick without it is </span>
  <em>
    <span>jarring.</span>
  </em>
  <span> It reminds Lana of the few times she’d seen him out and about in District Four, which wasn’t too often. She’s probably seen him on screen more often than she had in real life.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Katniss spoke of declaring freedom to President Snow.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Finnick is saying, and if it is an act it’s certainly a good one. He sounds genuine and angry, nothing like the frivolous Capitol pet who always commented cavalierly on the Games every year during his mentor interviews and sent Lana’s blood boiling with his carelessness. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“And so that’s what I’m going to do as well.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The camera angle switched - an edit, Lana is pretty sure, and Finnick’s expression has changed. He looks completely detached as he said, </span>
  <em>
    <span>“President Snow used to… sell me… my body, that is. I wasn’t the only one. If a victor is considered desirable, the president gives them as a reward or allows people to buy them for an exorbitant amount of money. If you refuse, he kills someone you love. So you do it.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>There’s a pause in the propo. A moment, to let the impact of that statement hit everyone watching.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lana doesn’t know how to react except to ask Shale in a very quiet voice, “Is that true?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shale is staring at the screen. He doesn’t look as shocked as Lana feels, but his fist is tighter than it was before. “I… it wouldn’t surprise me. We always heard rumors about the victors from One, sometimes from Two -  And victors being blackmailed to talk the Capitol up is nothing new, but I hadn’t heard - ” He cut off as Finnick started talking again and reached forward to turn up the volume.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I wasn’t the only one, but I was the most popular. And perhaps the most defenseless, because the people I loved were so defenseless. To make themselves feel better, my patrons would make presents of money or jewelry, but I found a much more valuable form of payment.” </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Another pause, and a cold smile crosses his face. As much as his body language is screaming that he doesn’t want to be saying all this so that it can be broadcast across the entire country, whatever he’s about to do seems to draw out the same person who once killed four children in a day. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“Secrets. And this is where you’re going to want to stay tuned, President Snow, because so very many of them were about you. But let’s begin with some of the others.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Although he clearly tries, it’s impossible for Finnick to detach himself from the stories. To exclude </span>
  <em>
    <span>how </span>
  </em>
  <span>he found out about them, and who whispered these things to him in the dead of the night. Rich, powerful, dangerous people, and Lana knows that what they’ve been seeing on the screen was only part of it. That as many people paid to be paraded around with Finnick in public, there were probably at least that many who did so in secrecy. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he talks, Shale turns the volume back down until it’s almost off. Lana doesn’t blame him. Most of them are Capitol scandals, devastating for anyone who is listening in the Capitol for sure, however of less interest to them in District Four. He doesn’t turn it all the way off unless there is some interesting information that they pick out, but there are probably other people who can share that info with them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shale, who has known Finnick for at least ten years, doesn’t need to listen to this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he finally speaks, he sounds even angrier than before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Restless waters? There’s gonna be fucking riots.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lana would question his surety, but she feels it too - she doesn’t know Finnick, not beyond his television appearances, yet she’s sitting here shaking with rage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Coraline, they’d told her, had been so gifted. Her aim made her special, and she was strong. Stronger than the other girls, even the ones above her age group. That’s why she’d been asked to volunteer at seventeen. Lana had been nervous, but she didn’t know any other option. She’d entered Coraline into training because she couldn’t afford to feed her. Coraline had taken to it like, well, like a fish to water.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s had a chance, everyone said. That’s what they said even after her throat was slit three days before the Games ended. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lana had held onto that for the longest time. She held onto that until they pulled Annie Cresta out of the arena, screaming and sobbing, driven out of her mind by the horrors that she’d seen. At the time she’d been angry at fate, chance, for allowing someone who so clearly didn’t want to be alive anymore to win the Games while her strong Coraline (she would’ve been the </span>
  <em>
    <span>perfect </span>
  </em>
  <span>V</span>
  <span>ictor, everyone said) wasn’t allowed to survive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had taken her some time to realize it wasn’t fate or chance or even Annie that she was angry at.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nobody ever wins the Games.” Shale had told her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And now, finally, Lana understands. There are no winners, except for the Capitol. It’s all truly an illusion, a pageantry to keep them fighting each other, trying to achieve some unattainable goal. District Four trains their children, sends them off to the arena ready for battle and sacrifices their youth for the slim chance that they will return victorious. They train them not just to kill, but to win the favor of the Capitol citizens, so that they will shower them with praise and adoration and sponsorship gifts in the arena.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And this is what the Capital does to the fortunate ones. Their favorites, the ones they decide are worth keeping alive. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>If they can do </span>
  <em>
    <span>this </span>
  </em>
  <span>to someone as beloved and public as Finnick, what else have they done? To Annie, who always seemed to come out of her Capitol “health sessions” more upset and withdrawn than ever? To Meri, who had her time in the Capitol spotlight ‘dating around’ in her youth? To Shale, who worked with the Capitol to betray the inklings of a rebellion fifteen years before? To Eldoris, who returned to mentor and train tributes year after year even though it sent him almost as far into the bottle as the drunken victor from Twelve?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What else have they been lying about? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the distance, Lana hears an explosion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She and Shale share a look and fly up to the deck. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s hard to tell from here, but when she gets a pair of binoculars out she can see that the Justice Building, where the Peacekeepers have been headquartered, is in flames. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That wasn’t us.” Shale confirms. “There’s nothing planned for tonight.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think it’s really riots?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Would you really be surprised?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No. Lana really wouldn’t. Because District Four and the Capitol had a contract, an understanding, and the Capitol had violated it. They’d taken one of their youngest, strongest, arguably most beloved Victor and degraded him in the worst possible way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What is the point of training your children to survive and kill in an arena only to condemn them to a life of abuse and rape afterward? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another explosion. This time it’s one of the Capitol trawlers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Restless waters.” Lana agrees.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Restless waters.” Shale nods, and they head back down to the cabin to prepare for an attack.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>By the time dawn breaks, they’ve driven the Peacekeepers out of the water and opened the way for reinforcements from District Thirteen. A small contingent of Peacekeepers and Capitol citizens hide in the bunker of the Justice Building, where an angry mob has painted things such as </span>
  <em>
    <span>Fuck the Capitol </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>Poison the snake </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>We’re done playing your Games.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Within a week, District Four is out from under Capitol control. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>For good.</span>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Don't ask me why, but I really like the idea of District 4 seeing Finnick's propo and being like "FUCK THAT."</p></blockquote></div></div>
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